Description of the attraction
The Stradivari Museum dates back to 1893, when Cremona received from Giovanni Battista Cerani a collection of templates, samples and various instruments that belonged to local violin makers, including the famous Antonio Stradivari. In 1895, another donation to the museum was made by Pietro Grulli - he donated four wooden clamps, which were also made by Stradivari. But the most significant part of the museum's collection are artifacts from the collection of Ignazio Alessandro Cozio, Count of Salabue. Born in 1755, he was the first to collect the legacy of the great violin makers. By acquiring what remained of the Stradivari workshop, Alessandro Cozio was able to satisfy his interest in violin making and soon became a major expert in this field. The collection, consisting of wooden patterns, paper sketches and various objects used in the manufacture of violins, violas, cellos and other musical instruments, was sold in 1920 by the last member of the Cozio family, the Marquise Paola Dalla Valle del Pomaro, a violin maker from Bologna Giuseppe Fiorini for 100 thousand lire. Later, this priceless collection was carefully studied by Simone Fernando Sacconi, who collected information about each of the items in the collection. Fiorini was defeated in his attempt to create a violin school in Italy based on his collection, and eventually, in 1930, transferred the entire collection to Cremona. In the same year, an exhibition with the Salabue collection was inaugurated in Palazzo Affaitati. The museum then moved to Palazzo del Arte, but in 2001 returned to the elegant 18th-century Palazzo Affaitati building.
Today, the expositions of the Stradivari Museum are divided into three sections. The first tells about the production of violins and violas in accordance with the traditions of the classical Cremona school, the second presents the instruments of the Italian violin makers of the second half of the 19th - the first half of the 20th centuries, and the third exhibits the same collection of Salabue-Fiorini with 710 artifacts from workshop of Stradivari himself.
